Keeping Up With the Joneses

I guess I haven't posted for a while. I think after Christmas it was just nice to have everything calmed down and we didn't do much exciting. Until this week. Last Monday-Thursday Marshall and I went to San Diego for a little vacation while the kids spent the week with grandma in Delta. Marshall had some free flights he had to use and so we decided to go to San Diego, relax, and enjoy the warm weather. We forgot the camera so no pics, but we had a great time sleeping in, eating out, watching movies. On Saturday I took Mason to see the musical Peter Pan at BYU. He absolutely loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I loved how excited he got. Myles was a little jealous but I think he would have been too scared of the pirates and I'm not sure he would have sat still for 2 and a half hours. But next Saturday I'm taking him to a little children's play called "Babe the Pig" and I think he will love it given his facination with pigs.

I think the parents were more excited than the kids for Christmas morning. Well, maybe not more excited than Mason. He came into our room at 2:30 saying "it is morning, lets go see what Santa brought." I convinced him to go back to bed with instructions not to come back until the clock said 6:00. Well, he didn't quite get that the first number had to be a 6 and so every 10 minutes (2:36, 2:46, etc) he came in asking if we could get up. At 5 am finally we heard noises downstairs and found out Scott's family was awake and waiting and so we got organized and came downstairs. We had to pause for a picture with all the grandkids . They really were excited, just not to happy to take a break from presents to take a picture. One of Mason's favorite gifts was his easy bake oven from Grandma and Grandpa Delta, along with a chef's uniform. He knows he is going to be a chef when he grows up. And the kids also got a bouncy house from Grandma and Grandpa Goates which was...

A few samples from Christmas Eve. We had the whole Goates clan plus Marshall's parents over for dinner and a program. I remember just feeling so grateful that my kids have the opportunity to create so many awesome memories of the holidays with so many people who love them. The dinner spread. The kids enjoyed dinner And I enjoyed dessert :) Our program was lovely. Mason sang a song he learned in school and remembered the whole thing, and Myles recited the poem he learned without inserting a single "poop" or "stupid." Max just enjoyed the candy popcorn his Grandma Delta kept sneaking to him. One of the greatest things was a personal visit from Santa. Notice how all the one year olds curiously aren't afraid of this Santa. Could it be that they could sense a grandpa kindness to him? The cuddled right up to him. Mason was a little suspicious saying that Santa looked a lot like Grandpa. But later he realized that Santa has blue eyes and Grandpa has brown ...

One of our family traditions is to make AMAZING chocolates at Christmas. The tradition started when my grandma and great grandma's ward started making them as a fundraiser. But then the Relief Society started making too much money so legend is the men shut them down. The feminist in me likes that story :)

I've given up on sifting through the hundreds (thousands?) of pictures of the holidays and just posting a few samples. The week leading up to Christmas was a blast. The Saturday before Christmas we had 4 parties in a single day! The first was the ward Christmas open house and the kids got to meet Santa. Well, two out of three were excited. . . e We also had a Polar Express party with the Jones cousins and made cookie trains. Mason had been looking forward to this for week and had designed his train down to every last detail. He planned the penguin cars, the fish in case they get hungry on the way to the north pole, the fire in the engine, and Santa riding on top so he wouldn't get burned. And finally, my family arrived just in time for Christmas. Here is the old original Goates clan (plus Max). So nice to all be together again!

It seems like we have been struggling to get Myles to sleep in his own bed since he moved out of the crib. We are really good about enforcing it and then let our guard down, and before we know it he is crawling into bed with us in the middle of the night. But it does give us a lot to laugh about. A few recent stories: * last night I went in to go to bed and there was Myles lying on top of our bed, buck naked, spread eagle, sound asleep. Almost every night he takes off either his pj pants or shirt, but it was so funny seeing everything off. * a few nights ago I noticed that Myles ran into our room seconds after we put him to bed in his own bed. I watched through the crack of the door as he started jumping up and down on our bed singing "nick-nack-paddy-whack" at the top of his lungs, happy as can be. But when I threw open the door and turned on the light he dropped onto his tummy and cried "what are you doing? I'm trying to sleep!" * a few nights ago he was sick...

Mason is good friends with a few girls in our neighborhood, and has been increasingly frustrated that they always want to play "girl games" like Barbies. He has quite an attitude about absolutely not playing "girl games." Well, he also is really interested in being a chef when he grows up and takes it very seriously. When I told him his daddy's cousin was a chef and maybe he could meet him and ask questions, Mason said "well I'm a chef, so maybe he would like to meet me!" Anyway, for Christmas his awesome grandma got him an Easy Bake Oven and this chef uniform. He was so excited about it and couldn't wait to invite his friends over to do what he insists is "boy stuff"--like baking in an easy bake oven. He has no idea and when he told the girls baking was a boy thing they were very confused. Also, yesterday Mason was again telling me that he hated "girl games" and he was so glad he was a boy. I asked him why and he said ...

Doesn't the poor baby look terrible? Well, Max caught Myles' pneumonia and it wasn't pretty. The poor baby was miserable Monday morning and despite a good dose of Tylenol his temperature was 104 and his O2 saturation only 86 when we took him to the doctor's on Monday morning. We were saved the hassle of the chest x-rays this time because the doctor could be pretty sure it was pneumonia again, so we started him on the antibiotics and steroids and cough medicine. The problem is, when he sees the dropper coming he clenches his jaw and wiggles, and when we finally get it in his mouth he spits it right back out. It is so hard to get him to take medicine, but when we finally got some good doses in him Tuesday night it really seemed to help. This morning he was about 70% back to his old self. What a relief! One more thing--at his 15 month visit he weighed 19 lbs which was scary enough, but this time he weighed 17 lbs at almost 18 months!! And this is after eating constant...

Christmas pictures are forthcoming. . .but I wanted to post an update on Myles. A few days ago Myles started coughing and the next day he was miserable, 102 degree fever, and having trouble breathing. I took him to the doctor's where she did some breathing treatments and then ordered chest x-rays and sure enough he has pneumonia again. The doctor was wonderful and decided to be proactive because he was hospitalized for the same thing 2 years ago, and so he started on antibiotics, steroids, and breathing treatments right away. Today is the third day on the meds and the good news is that he is doing so much better. The bad news is. . .now Max has a 102 degree fever and a cough. Here are some cute pictures. They made Myles wear a mask at the hospital while waiting for x-rays. While he was waiting for x-rays, Myles kept saying "but Mom, I don't think I swallowed a nickel this time. Why do I need x-rays?"